Mewborn bucket vaults LCS into tourney final

Saturday

Dec 28, 2013 at 11:30 AM

By Doug DonnellyDaily Telegram Special Writer

When Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central tied the score at 44-44 with 7.6 seconds left Friday, Lenawee Christian coach Scott McKelvey did what most coaches do in that situation — he called for a timeout. In fact, he called for it twice. But, when the referees didn’t hear the call, the Cougars pushed the ball up the floor, and found Nick Mewborn under the basket for a game-winning layup.

“After I said it, I saw that we had an advantage, a three-on-two advantage,” McKelvey said. “Thankfully, I didn’t call for it a third time.”

The thrilling win by the Cougars puts them into today’s championship of the fourth annual Siena Heights High School Holiday Basketball Tournament. Lenawee Christian will play Addison in what should be a dandy matchup of area high school hoops talent.

It almost didn’t happen, however. The Cougars led by as many as 12 points, but Class B SMCC — a state semifinalist a year ago in Class C and defending tournament champion — went on a tremendous fourth-quarter rally to tie the score twice in the final two minutes before the Cougars moved ahead at the end. SMCC scored 22 points in the final quarter alone.

“Their press bothered us,” McKelvey said. “We didn’t get as many possessions as we wanted to because we kept turning the ball over.”

The Falcons made only nine field goals, but they made them count. Standout guard Bryce Windham scored 18 points. Brad Sherman didn’t make a field goal, but swished 11 free throws and pulled down 16 rebounds for the Falcons.

“It was a nice win for them, a nice game for us,” SMCC Coach Randy Windham said. “We won by 40 points the other night, but this game will help us more. They are a good team and are going to just get better.”

LCS led 25-15 at halftime, then extended the lead to 31-19 on free throws by Grant Hohlbein. In the fourth quarter, however, the Falcons kept chipping away. A big basket by Cougar forward Dan Schwartz and a dunk by Collins kept Lenawee Christian in front until Windham tied it at 42-42 with under a minute to play. Hohlbein scored two points with 39.8 seconds left to give Lenawee Christian the lead at 44-42, but Windham tied it with a running jumper with 7.8 seconds.

That’s when McKelvey started calling for a timeout, but the Cougars pushed the ball up the floor instead.

“Once we got going, we just wanted to attack the basket,” McKelvey said. “We wanted to try to get a layup or a foul.”

Hohlbein took a pass in the front court, then found Mewborn under the basket.“I just tried to get open,” Mewborn said. “It was nice because I had just had a turnover. I was able to make up for that.”

Lenawee Christian is building a powerhouse. Besides its usual talent, the Cougars added three transfers from Nigeria to the roster before the season. Sophomores Collins and Maxwell are both 6-foot-8, the same height as senior Kingsley. All three — they go by first names only — made huge contributions to the Cougar win. Maxwell had five rebounds.

“It’s a work-in-progress,” McKelvey said of adding the three transfers to the roster. “It’s going to take 20 games for them to all come together. We are learning to play with one another. It takes a lot of time. We are stressing the fundamentals right now. Every game is a chance for them to learn the game.”

Collins scored 10 points Friday. Hohlbein led the Cougars with 13 points. Mewborn hit a 3-pointer to open the game, then closed it with the layup.

“It was a big, big win for us, especially after we lost our last game,” Mewborn said. “It shows we can play with anybody.”